Prime?

Thanks in advance.
This morning I ran my bike out of gas, I filled the tank and now it won't start. Friend said put the petcock at prime and try to start it. Nothing. It is getting spark just fine but it does not seem to be getting fuel. If I try long enough, I can smell gas but I don't see it and it doesn't seem any closer to turning over. Any ideas?

since you ran it out of fuel there is a possiblity that you cloged the screens in the tank,
do you have a fuel filter inline?
have you checked to make sure you are getting fuel in the carb bowls

No inline filter. How do I check the bowls?

PFC FNG wrote:

No inline filter. How do I check the bowls?

There should be drain screws on the bottom of the bowls. Turn the petcock OFF and loosen the screws and drain them into a small plastic or glass cup.

BTW: gas floats on top of water, so the bottom of many gas tanks has some slimy water sludge in it. When you get down to the reserve tap, that is a shorter pipe that draws fuel at a level lower in your tank.... where the crud sometimes resides.

If I was you:

1) Take the tank off.

2) Use the petcock to drain it out into a clean bucket. Pour the clean gas off into another clean bucket, dump the slimy stuff.

3) rinse the gas tank with either clean gas or naptha (mineral spirits) type solvent.

4) Drop the bowls on the carbs and clean themm.

5) Clean the petcock assembly and filter screen.

6) Install some inline filters.

Will all of this have to be done before I can get this thing running again? Kinda need my daily driver.

PFC FNG wrote:

Will all of this have to be done before I can get this thing running again? Kinda need my daily driver.

Well, if you started right after you posted, you should be out riding right now

PFC FNG wrote:

Will all of this have to be done before I can get this thing running again? Kinda need my daily driver.

You can actually see the answer to that: bike fuel systems work on gravity, and the crap all runs downhill.... just like management.

Anyway, if there's crap in the tank and you don't clear it out, it will just keep going downhill and gunking up the jets in your carbs.

It may be a PITA, but everybody with a bike does it on a semi regular basis.

As long as you can fit the tools around everything, can you remove the carb bowls without removing the carb rack?

PFC FNG wrote:

As long as you can fit the tools around everything, can you remove the carb bowls without removing the carb rack?

That would be near impossible. Have you removed the drain bolts from the bottom of the bowls and see if gas is flowing? Running out of gas should not cause everything to plug up. You're sure you did in fact run out of gas?

Positive. Open vents and milky white shit came out.

Ok. Pulled the carbs, cleaned the bowls. Reassembled (properly as near as I can tell). Removed and cleaned petcock. Rinsed tank. Still won't start. I popped the drain plugs on the bowls and the carbs are getting fuel. I have spark. I have air. Any ideas?

PFC FNG wrote:

Ok. Pulled the carbs, cleaned the bowls. Reassembled (properly as near as I can tell). Removed and cleaned petcock. Rinsed tank. Still won't start. I popped the drain plugs on the bowls and the carbs are getting fuel. I have spark. I have air. Any ideas?

If you are sure you have spark and fuel, the other main piece to check is cylinder compression.

I'd also clean the spark plugs.